Musings: Episode 2 Lifestyles, Desires, and Passions

So this Friday night I went out with friends for drinks and good music at Breathe, a lounge I like to frequent when I feel like a change from the Miami scene.

The night started out casually with food, drinks, and music…then mellowed out with hookah and deep conversation.

Most of it centered around lifestyles and desires, passions and bucket lists, all the good stuff everyone of us as humans secretly discuss with ourselves throughout the day, and get into fervent conversation with when the opportunity arises with friends and even newly met acquaintances.

This prompted me to blog, wanting to know other’s opinions and dreams or leisure goals. I figured I’d kick it off here and see if I could get some feedback from you guys, as it’s always good to hear from readers and bounce opinions and ideas off of people.

In being part of Generation Y, combined with being the type of person who’s always valued and enjoyed every millisecond of free time I’ve had since childhood, I’m constantly looking for new, fun, memorable experiences…

….and really, when you think about it, that’s what life is about.

Experiences.

That’s all we really ever pursue. From the girlfriend/boyfriend, to the surfing at Teahupoo, the epic snowboard trips to Hokkaido, and the unforgettable moments with friends that begin with, “Remember that one time when we,” and end with a dozen or so photos with proof showing you actually did make it to the top of the giant horse outside of P.F. Chang’s, posing as a Genghis Khan Warrior with your umbrella outstretched in one hand and the stolen pint glass in the other.

Though at a more innocent level in our childhood youth, the desire for experiences stays with us until we’re adults…the main thing being keeping our eye on the ball, making sure we don’t lose focus and getting caught up in the daily “adult responsibilities” we take on as we progress through life.
I’m not talking about something complex here, or maybe I am as well, but starting with responsibilities that boil down to the basics like rent or a mortgage, basic utilities and the monthly amount we pay to keep our absolutely mandatory access to technology up and running.

Sometimes, we do lose focus and get caught up in consumerism, through the media mostly and advertising, because let’s be honest, that one little secret skate gap in T.H.U.G. (for the less avid gamers, that’s short for Tony Hawk’s Underground) named “Control the Media, Control the Minds” is indeed true and it’s done everyday.

By increasing our consumer habits it’s my belief we lose out on investing in in-the-moment experiences, trading them off instead for mentally planted desires for materialistic instant gratification, an inception so to speak with enough influence…

…but then, we have the people who aren’t entirely distracted, or not distracted at all by mass media advertising for mere materialistic things, but instead hunt after experiences…and this is where it gets fun.

Woohoo!

With enough experiences, you reach a point where less is more, meaning you desire less materialistic things, i.e. the big house, the 17 car garage filled with various collector’s versions of makes such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, or a million dollar Bugatti, or the 9 hole golf course in your back yard. Maybe you do still desire that, it’s up to you, but the point I’m trying to make is this:

If you had to choose between a $410,000 Lambo Aventador which costs anywhere from $60 for a pint of oil in maintenance alone –

Tempting?

or $41,000 to travel around the world, exploring each country and every city you could think of for 2 weeks to a month each – with plenty of spending money to spare – which would you pick? How many experiences do you think you could recall with either one, from memory, a year from now…and still smile about…bringing up the same feelings as if you were doing it all over again?

The choice is up to you, but you get the general idea.

If I had to list of some things I would like to experience again and new things to try out, most of what would roll off my tongue right now would involve epic stories to tell after.

Visiting Brazil, skipping the hotels and luxury resorts, befriending locals and leaving with them embracing you as if you were born there.

A weekend in Key West with a rented luxury car from Lou Lav Vie – hit the town and make nights that are told about 5 years later.

GTR?

or R8? Decisions, decisions…

A month in Thailand checking out street vendor food, club nights in Hatyai, encounters with an overly-friendly-and-slightly-grabby elephant and skipping across to Malaysia for amazing prices on unique liquor.

A full week rental of an 82′ Sunseeker Predator Yacht for an intimate and exclusive party.

Or even better, a weekend of the oh so sultry 28′ Fearless Porsche powerboat, styled by Porsche, only 22 made in the world and powered by a 550 horsepower V10 taken from a Dodge Viper –

Just leave the keys on the dash, cap’n.

Who wouldn’t want a weekend with that puppy?

Nights in South Korea trying out your horribly pronounced Hangul but at least making the effort and meeting locals that become great friends for years to come.

Helicopter rides over the city at night making for fucking amazing photographic moments.

Ahh, London.

The thing about all these examples is you don’t need to own a single materialistic thing, yet the experience stays with you forever.

Soon you begin to realize that less really is more, and simplistic living doesn’t mean a shack and an umbrella for shelter, but that maybe a 10 bedroom house isn’t really where it’s at, and that 3 couches 4 flat screens and 2 pool tables in the den is a little excessive…Then soon you start discovering the philosophy of “cluttered house cluttered mind; empty house empty mind” rings more true than the stuff up in the attic.

We come into this world with nothing materialistic, bare naked and untainted, and we leave this world being unable to take any physical thing with us – only memories.

This – this is why experiences in the end really prevail.
Memories are what make us, and the only way to gain memories are through experiences.

And you know what…? It’s a beautiful thing. It’s so simplistic – and at times if not careful…so easy to lose focus of.

But if we hold focus…and we hold true to our real desires…our real passions…and what really pulls at the very core of our being – the same feeling you get that’s the equivalent of when you’re with your lover, and you’re wrapped up in such a moment that you literally feel pulled, like a deep, gentle, gravitational pull to one another….

right in your core…painless, but full of desire and a sense of fulfillment…it’s then that we can really experience life for what it’s meant to be. It’s then that we can feel life for what it’s really meant to be…